NASA’s Quesst Mission: X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft Testing | NASA Armstrong
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on the ramp at sunrise before ground tests at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, on July 18, 2025.
NASA test pilot Nils Larson lowers the canopy of the X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft during ground tests at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, on July 18, 2025.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft taxis across the runway during a low-speed taxi test at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on July 10, 2025. The test marks the start of taxi tests and the last series of ground tests before first flight.
Here you see the X-59 scaled model inside the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) supersonic wind tunnel during critical tests related to sound predictions.
The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst Mission to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight. The aircraft is scheduled to make its first flight later in 2025. NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has completed taxi tests, marking the first time this one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft has moved under its own power. The aircraft completed its first low-speed taxi test, allowing engineers and flight crews to monitor how it handled moving across the runway under its own power. Taxi tests mark the final major ground test before flight operations begin.
NASA’s Quesst Mission aims to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight by reducing the loud sonic boom to a quieter “thump”. Data gathered during X-59 research flights will be shared with the U.S. and international regulators to inform the establishment of new, data-driven acceptable noise thresholds related to supersonic commercial flight over land.
The X-59’s engine, a modified F414-GE-100, packs 22,000 pounds of thrust. This will enable the X-59 to achieve the desired cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 miles per hour) at an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet. It sits in a nontraditional spot–atop the aircraft—to aid in making the X-59 quieter.
The X-59's goal is to help change existing national and international aviation rules that ban commercial supersonic flight over land.
Image Credits: NASA/Carla Thomas, Lockheed Martin Corporation/Garr, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Image Dates: July 10-17, 2025
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